Despite large scale gold operations…Chinese companies make no declarations

Finance Minister Winston Jordan, in his budget presentation, last week, reported that at least a third of taxes and other revenues that could have been collected were not, because of poor enforcement by the Guyana Revenue Authority and other revenue-collecting agencies.
Tax revenues were leaking from everywhere. As a matter of fact, Government estimates billions of dollars were also lost to the country because of poor management of the concessions for foreign investors, remigrants and even local contractors.
As a matter of fact, in 2014 it was estimated that almost $60B was granted in concessions and tax waivers, significant when taken into account that the country’s budget was a total of $220B.
These concessions went to companies and individuals in the gold mining and forestry sectors.
The monies lost would have gone a far way in helping to pay public servants a much needed raise and plug into other areas, the Finance Minister asserted.
In recent days, the administration has vowed to haul back the situation. Its main exports of gold, timber, rice and sugar dwindled in earnings.
The government has started making changes at the Guyana Revenue Authority, and has announced new measures that will see legal amendments that mandate everyone and every business to be up-to-date with their returns before they can renew even their driver’s and other licences.
A government official told Kaieteur News that two of the biggest areas that have been defrauding the country of revenues are the situation in gold mining and the timber sector.
In addition to smuggling, a large number of miners have not been up-to-date with their gold declarations. The official said the failure to declare their gold hampered them from benefiting from a number of concessions granted by Government.
This also caused the country to lose billions of dollars yearly.
As allegations of wrongdoing continue to focus attention on the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), it is being reported that several persons and companies snatched up mining lands that had been returned to the state.
They did this through insider information.
Within the last few years, large swaths of mining lands across the country were granted to them.
A significant amount of land has ended up in the hands of not only locals but also a number of foreign nationals and companies.
In recent weeks, Kaieteur News has been investigating the activities in the extractive industries. It is clear that the enforcement aspect is alarming, officials said.
Checks with other Government officials revealed that the Chinese alone have been allowed access to hundreds of thousands of acres of mining lands. Two of the large beneficiaries are Rong An Inc. and BaiShanLin.
These two companies, despite their large scale gold mining, on a number of locations across the country, have not been making the corresponding declarations of gold, government officials say.
As a matter of fact, Rong An barely declared 150 ounces in 2014. There was no declaration in 2015 by the said company.
BaiShanLin, through a number of companies and its principal, Chu Hongbo, has no records that suggest it was making declarations.
For each ounce of gold sold, Guyana is supposed to collect seven percent of the value in royalty. This should have raised alarming questions over the monitoring being conducted by the regulator, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. But according to the official, there was no question asked, so nothing was done.
Whether there was incompetence or corruption involved will be known soon.
What is known, according to miners, is that the Chinese are indeed heavily involved in mining.
BaiShanLin, for instance, facing scrutiny in its logging operations and barred from exporting logs, has been reportedly diverting its equipment to the many gold concessions the company and owners have been able to acquire.
A few years ago, Rong An Inc. was reportedly removed from mining in the vicinity of the Kaieteur Falls. It was affecting residents who lived downstream in the area.